Press Conference by Deputy Director of Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

Globally, the rate of HIV infection is declining and access to treatment is expanding, but with 7,000 people newly infected every day and funding going down, the fight against the scourge must be reinvigorated, says a new report of the Secretary-General launched this afternoon at Headquarters.

“In spite of gains, we are at a precarious slope with the first decline ever of international funding, in 2009,” Victor Mari Ortega, Deputy Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), told correspondents at the launch of the report entitled Uniting for universal access:  towards zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

Introducing Dr. Ortega, Pragati Pascale of the Department of Public Information said that the report, launched earlier today in Nairobi and based on data submitted by 182 countries, provided recommendations that will be considered by stakeholders in formulating the outcome of the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on AIDS, planned for 8 to 10 June.

Dr. Ortega said that the international community had made great strides since the first international goals were set out in 2001.  International funding had gone from under $1 billion that year to $16 billion in 2009, the rate of new infections had gone down 20 per cent and, since 2005, there had been a 10-fold increase in access to antiretroviral drugs, which last year reached 6 million people in low- and middle-income countries.

He noted that international goals established in 2001 and 2006 had set 2010 as their deadlines.  For that reason, the report recommends new goals for 2015.  Those included reducing by 50 per cent the sexual transmission of AIDS, targeting such key populations as young people and men who have sex with men in the context of sex work, as well as ending all new infections through intravenous drug use.  Dr. Ortega pointed out that 1,000 of the new daily infections were in children.  He added that funding was not optimally directed to the groups most at risk.

Outlining other goals recommended in the report, he said that the Secretary-General called on stakeholders to commit to eliminating all transmission from mother-to-child by 2015, a target that was in reach because now 50 per cent of women who were at risk had access to the necessary treatment.  Some 370,000 newborns still contracted HIV, however, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.  Early HIV testing of pregnant women was critical, he commented.

In addition, he said, the report calls for commitments to reduce by 50 per cent tuberculosis deaths in people with HIV and to more than double HIV treatment to 13 million people by 2015.  It also calls for having by that date a 50 per cent reduction in the number of countries with HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay and residence, following the lifting of restrictions by the United States and China last year.  Equal access to education for children made vulnerable by AIDS should also be sought, according to the recommendations.

In response to questions, Dr. Ortega said that in terms of reaching the goals, the Secretary-General prioritizes the strengthening of partnerships.  In increasing access to HIV treatment at the community level, for example, civil society would be most important.

Asked about the preparatory process for the June high-level meeting, he said negotiations were ongoing towards an outcome in which goals would be agreed on and adopted by Member States.  Stakeholders, including civil society, would have a chance to interact in the process.

He acknowledged that in previous negotiations, there never had been a smooth route to agreement and he anticipated additional difficulties this time, particularly because financial resources were tight.  For that reason, he said, the Secretary-General suggested that middle-income countries take more responsibility in funding their own programmes, and he urged that all programmes become more efficient and focused, targeting at-risk populations, for example.

In answer to a question about Brazil, he said that the country had been a leader in providing treatment for its population, with the view that spending money for treatment would ultimately reduce costs for caring for people with HIV.  In addition, young people had been engaged at all levels to reduce the impact of the epidemic.

Asked about how changes in North Africa and the Middle East might affect HIV/AIDS issues, he said that there was no doubt that more open societies would be conducive to the provision of services for marginalized groups, but it was too early to predict the effects of the ongoing political turmoil.  He had already seen some earnest efforts in the region to monitor the spread of the disease and address its problems, he added.

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For information media • not an official record